Israeli Labor Spurns Peres

Former Party Leader Denied Honorary Post

TEL AVIV, Israel — The saddest and perhaps most telling moment came even before the Labor Party vote that denied former Prime Minister Shimon Peres an honorary position as party president.

In a bitter speech before delegates voted on whether to discuss appointing him to the new post, Peres, who led Labor to five election defeats, asked rhetorically, ``Am I a loser?''

``Yes,'' came the humiliating response, shouted by a few delegates throughout the crowded auditorium.

Party members then killed the presidency proposal, voting to put off debate on it until well after a new party leadership is chosen next month.

Peres had said earlier that unless the vote was held during the party's three-day convention, which ends today, he would not accept the position.

The loss, underscored by the insult from party members, marked an ignominious end to Peres' leadership of Labor, which will choose its new chairman and candidate for prime minister on June 3.

The decisive vote was also a key victory for former army chief of staff Ehud Barak, the man favored to succeed Peres as party leader.

To some extent, Peres brought the rejection upon himself, stubbornly struggling to hang on to a policymaking role even after being turned out of office in last year's election loss to Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even after the vote, Peres insisted he still had a role to play. ``I have a title and I have a job,'' he said on Wednesday. ``The title is Shimon Peres, and the job is to fight for peace.''

Nonetheless, the convention vote spells ``the end of the prolonged end'' for Peres, said Avraham Burg, a Peres confidant.

In his convention speech, Barak praised Peres for his ``experience, inspiration and greatness'' but said that naming him to Labor's presidency would create rival centers of power within the party.

Even as it turns to a new generation of leaders, however, the Labor Party signaled Wednesday that it would continue on the leftist course set by Peres and others.

For the first time, delegates approved adding to its platform a statement recognizing Palestinians right to self-determination.